Achievement Goals and Student Motivation in the Middle School Years: Teachers' Use of Motivational Strategies with High and Low Performing Students.

Powell, Barbara M.

This study compared the perceptions of teachers and their students about the frequency with which the teachers used motivational strategies that supported mastery goals with both high- and low-performing students. A sample of 47 middle school teachers and their students (314 high-performing and 243 low-performing) completed teacher and student versions of the Motivational Strategy Use Questionnaire. The 27-item questionnaire measured the extent to which teachers' reports of the frequency with which they used adaptive motivational strategies agreed with the perceptions of their high- and low-performing students within the same classroom. Data analysis indicated that teachers reported using adaptive motivational strategies more frequently with high-performing students. Teachers and students differed significantly in their perceptions of the frequency with which teachers used adaptive motivational strategies. Both high- and low-achieving students reported low frequencies of teachers using motivational strategies that would support a mastery goal. Younger students tended to see their classrooms as more mastery focused than did older students. (Contains 22 references). (Author/SM)